


One Crowded Hour

by sg_wonderland



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 21:51:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4453712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sg_wonderland/pseuds/sg_wonderland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bit different from the typical trapped-on-an-alien-planet story, Sam-Daniel friendship. Discussion of bad taste, pig-tails, and side-arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Crowded Hour

One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.-Walter Scott.

 

“Come on, Sam, stay with me, okay?” I tap her face lightly, then again, not so lightly. She has been fading in and out, and I’m petrified that each time, she’s not coming back.

I feel her body tense. “Daniel?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” 

“You okay?”

“Could be better.” Actually I’m better than she is. Her head took quite a knock when the lab collapsed. According to my watch, we’ve been down here about three hours. Teal’c and Jack raced to the gate and brought back rescue and medical teams. The last we heard from Jack, they were estimating about an hour. All I have to do is keep Sam awake and alert for an hour. Hey, no problem, piece of cake, right? “You know,” I say conversationally, “usually I’m the one who gets accused of blowing stuff up.” She unexpectedly giggles. “I’m just saying,” as I bump her shoulder with mine.

“Sorry ‘bout that.” She mumbles, her head landing on my shoulder.

“Yeah, well, you’re gonna owe me big time for this one.”

“Could have been worse.”

I look around at the remains of the Goa’uld lab that entombs us. “I’d like to know how.”

“Could have been stuck down here with the colonel.”

I laugh at that. “Yeah, if I had to be stuck with anyone, you’d be my first pick.”

“Flattery?” She leans in closer and I shift so that I have my arm around her, pull her into my body, and snug her face into my neck. “Thanks. Kinda cold.”

“That’s what they all say. You women are so predictable.”

“Not just women.” She mumbles. “Colonel said the same thing.”

“When you were stuck in Antarctica?” She nods. “Well, I can tell you unequivocally that if you feel something, it most definitely isn’t my side-arm since I don’t know where the hell it is.” Giggling again, she snuggles in closer. I shift her away long enough to take my coat off before covering her and settling her back in my arms. I always forget how tiny she really is, my coat envelops her. I take one of her slender hands in mine and tuck the other one in the pocket.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“No,” I lie. She’s the one with the head injury, who needs to be kept calm and warm and comfortable. Another, I glance at my watch, forty-five minutes? I can pull that, no problem. Keep her awake, keep her talking, I tell myself. “So, did you always want the Air Force?”

“Oh, yeah, never wanted anything else. How about you?”

“Never thought about anything but archaeology. I guess we learned from the best, didn’t we? You know what’s funny? Of all of us, Jack’s the only one who didn’t follow in their father’s footsteps.” Jack’s dad was a firefighter before he made captain, then retired. 

“I can see the colonel as a firefighter.” She comments.

“Yeah, can’t you just? After he rescued someone, then he’d holler at them to be more careful next time.” We both know we’re in for a lecture when we’re back home. Sighing in sync, we take a moment to feel sorry for ourselves.

“In all fairness, I didn’t know the lab was booby-trapped.” 

“Do you really think that’s going to matter to Jack?”

“No. I just hope he waits until my headache’s gone.”

I snort. “Yeah, like that’ll happen. They’ll carry you to the gate on a stretcher. You’ll be trussed up, the perfect victim. Might as well get it over with, though.”

“And I suppose you think you’re gonna walk with those ribs?” Her voice is laced with completely uncalled for sarcasm.

“I usually walk with my feet, not my ribs. But if you want to see me try, hey, anything for a laugh.”

“Shithead.” There is a world of affection in that slur.

“Dork.” I answer back.

“Dweeb.”

“Geek.”

“Dumbass.”

“Okay, now that was insulting! My ass is at least as smart as the rest of me.” A sly glance tells me we’ve got about twenty more minutes. Maybe less, because I can hear the determined digging on the other side of the collapsed wall.

“Well, it might be if you dressed a little more….” She pauses.

“A little more what?”

“Upscale?”

“Upscale? What kind of word is that?”

“Dammit, Daniel.” Her oath sounds remarkably like someone else’s favorite mode of addressing me. “I know how much money you make. You can afford a lot better. You’re cute, you should flaunt it.”

“Puppies are cute. Little girls in pig-tails are cute. Hey, did you ever…?”

“My wardrobe failures are not the subject of discussion here, buster, yours are. And stop trying to distract me. You’re cute, Daniel.”

“Wow, you must have gotten hit a lot harder than I thought, if you’re putting this kind of time and effort into critiquing my wardrobe.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! Janet and I have already discussed this extensively and we’ve reached the conclusion that you need an intervention.”

”Isn’t that usually done to cure an addiction?”

“Yeah, well, face it, you’re addicted to bad taste. It’s up to us as your friends, to drag you out of the depths of wardrobe hell. We thought about nominating you for one of those TV make-over shows, but the Air Force would never agree.” She sighs heavily. “Too bad, they would have had a field day with those eyebrows.”

I’m afraid to ask exactly what she means by that; I fear she’s contemplating separating me from some attached facial hair. “I’m still picturing you with the pig-tails. Must remind myself to ask Jacob the next time I see him.” I grin to myself.

“Yeah, like he’ll tell you.”

“Tell me? Hell, he’ll produce pictures. Hate to break this to you, Sam, but your dad adores me.” I preen just a bit.

“I have yet to figure out why. Even Sel’mak likes you.”

I shudder. “That is information I could probably have done without.”

We sit silently for a moment. “How long?”

I peer at my watch. “Coming up on an hour.”

“One crowded hour,” she quotes. I look down at her in surprise. “Hey, I’ve been known to read a few things that aren’t physics books.”

“Yeah, if you’re so smart, who?”

“Sir Walter Scott. Eighteenth century Scottish poet and author. Didn’t everyone have to read ‘Ivanhoe’ in high school?” She grins up at me in triumph.

“Okay, you got me on that one.” I admit defeat.

“And your payment will be that you let Janet and I pick you out two, no, three outfits. And you get them, regardless of how much they cost.”

I squirm uncomfortably at that notion. All those years of being a starving student are too firmly ingrained for me to be extravagant. “Umm, how much money are we talking about?”

“Relax, Daniel, we won’t bankrupt you. Although you should expect to pay several hundred for a good suit.”

”Dollars?” I squawk.

“Yes, Daniel, dollars. Several hundred.” She smiles in delighted satisfaction. “And that’s just for the suit. Then there are the shoes. And you have to have a proper coat to go with it.”

“Why?” I whine unrepentantly.

“Because the president is going to be there. And you have to look nice. The colonel and I will be wearing our dress blues. You have to look nice. It’s expected.”

“Why do I feel dirty all of a sudden?”

“Daniel? Carter?” We both look up to see the colonel’s head popping through an opening in the wall. “Something you two would like to share?”

I tighten my arm around Sam. There’s no way in hell I’m telling Jack that I just agreed to go shopping with the chicks. Only one of us here needs their head examined. Instead I just grin at him. “So, what took you so long?”


End file.
